Peel schools are Enbridge’s Environmental Champions

​Schools from across Ontario participated in Enbridge's annual Energy School Challenge in efforts to engage and educate students in understanding energy efficiency and natural gas conservation. More than 50 schools from the Peel District School Board participated and four earned top places in the challenge that took place in the 2017-18 school year and were awarded with a total of $10,000 in cash prizes.

The challenge engages the school's environmental teams in understanding energy efficiency and conservation through classroom curriculum modulus, and hands on school activities. The school teams track their progress in comparison to other schools in the competition via utility meters.

Below are details of some of the activities that went on in these schools:

Throughout the school year, students and staff at Cherrytree Public School promoted water and electricity conservation by encouraging others to use reusable water bottles, held clothing drives, collected materials for recycling and placed stickers above light switches as reminders to switch off lights in their school.

Last school year, Robert H. Lagerquist Sr. Public School formed its first ever Eco Team. Students and staff hosted held a variety of eco-friendly challenges, including a recycled art contest, an environmentally-friendly bookmark competition that showcased water cycles or filtration diagrams, conducted energy-use investigations at home and compared their findings at school.

Last year, students from Humberview Secondary School received second place in the challenge. This year, the school's Eco Team earned first place by facilitating a waste audit, celebrated the official opening of the school's Peace garden, invited a speaker from EcoCaledon to speak with students about climate change and attended the Peel environmental youth alliance conference and more.

The challenge at Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School was led by the school's Environmental Action Club. Using the information provided by the school's custodial staff, students and staff performed a school-wide light and school waste audit, and promoted a variety of challenges to encourage waste reduction. The funds earned from the challenge will be put towards an outdoor teaching garden that will focus on sustainable living.

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Schools are encouraged to participate in its 2018-19 Enbridge Energy School Challenge by registering on their website. The challenge will run from now until April 2019.

The Challenge enhances and supports the EcoSchools program, especially in Curriculum and Energy Conservation, while also fostering Leadership and Equity through strong inclusive EcoTeams. We are currently inviting schools to join the 100 certified PDSB Ontario EcoSchools (see attached list) to certify in 2018-2019. To apply, schools may register online: http://certapp.ontarioecoschools.org/user/login.

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